G-2301-17701

Community Catalyst is a national organization dedicated to building the power of people to create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice. The organization partners with and supports state and community-based groups, specifically groups led by and serving BIPOC and other systemically excluded communities.

In the past few years, because of long-term efforts by many organizations and individuals, there have been more conversations about the importance of dental coverage and its inclusion in Medicare. This work is critical and will be sustained, but there is more clearly an opportunity that centers on community engagement across several states that recently succeeded in securing an adult dental benefit for adults through Medicaid. As implementation and rulemaking get underway, Community Catalyst believes that community representation remains lacking in policy advocacy and development despite consensus that those closest to the problem should be centered in oral health policy agendas. To combat this, the organization plans to double down on its commitment to building the community engagement, oral health, and advocacy capacities required of community and state-based partners to advance responsive civic engagement, particularly with organizations representative of BIPOC and other historically marginalized communities.

In 2022, Community Catalyst piloted an oral health “orientation” that introduced new CareQuest Institute grantees, primarily community-based organizations new to oral health, to the space and how to approach systems-change with an equity lens. Those conversations have supported each participating grantees’ work and created opportunities for equity to be prioritized more intentionally within activities that. This proposed scope of work stands to not only equip advocates with important information, tactics, tools, and partners, it responds to the timing of benefits implementation for several states who have opportunities to directly engage people on oral health issues as coverage rolls out. This work could also greatly benefit new organizations to CareQuest Institute who feel underprepared to engage in oral health advocacy.

In this proposal, Community Catalyst proposes work that exists in three key project areas:

Advance State and Federal Policy

Community Catalyst will continue to promote comprehensive coverage by working with policymaker champions to prioritize oral health issues and advocating for expanding oral health workforce opportunities. Work in this area will also include recommendations for improving private coverage and a manuscript that outlines the economic impact of high dental care costs as the nation more broadly discuss its economic challenges.

Strengthen Capacity: Community Catalyst will work with a variety of organizations (individual, state, networks) to unpack how structural and institutional inequities drive disparate outcomes and assess opportunities for creating change. This work will also include technical assistance and resources for community engagement.

Local: Community Catalyst will help new partners better understand oral health advocacy and ultimately support organizations to avoid missteps and leverage the experience and learnings of similar organizations for their benefit.

State: Community Catalyst will identify 3 states (based on network, interest level, window of opportunity within the state) to support development of updated advocacy tools and design/execute community engagement strategies.

National: Community Catalyst will offer learning opportunities for the broader oral health field, which could include support for OPEN, participating in grantee learning communities, and leading national webinars, presentations, and trainings.

Community Catalyst will produce a Quarterly Report for CareQuest Institute, on the topic of their Technical Assistance efforts, to support collaboration and capture the capacity needs and growth of CareQuest Institute grantees.

Create Community Connectedness

Related to the state-level Technical Assistance that will be provided, Community Catalyst will identify and part with three community-based organizations in those states to support a series of community conversations around health systems transformation with a specific focus on topics that align or overlap with CareQuest Institute’s enterprise initiatives. The selected community-based partners will receive $10k subgrants for their engagement and the learnings from these conversations will be captured within a brief or report at the end of the grant period.

Community Catalyst has been a thought partner in the design, and at times execution, of the CareQuest Institute grantee learning communities as well as support for new partner organizations to CareQuest Institute. There is a specific opportunity for Community Catalyst’s work, through this grant, to create valuable feedback loops between community and state organizations who are interested in and potentially able to advance the work happening across CareQuest Institute’s various Enterprise Initiatives. As experts in community mobilization and advocacy, the grants team reached out to Community Catalyst to think through possible pathways of engaging communities more directly and this proposed project area was the result of those discussions. Ideally, the three geographies that are identified will benefit from a strong grantee presence and/or network of oral health champions who can support their work.

This proposal was originally submitted for $593,437 but is being recommended for funding at $485,000 following discussions with Community Catalyst based on reviewer feedback. The grant funds will primarily support staff/personnel who lead oral health policy activities and subgrants to three community-based organizations to engage as community partners who can inform CareQuest Institute's enterprise initiatives.

This request is a reduction from the organization’s previous grant and reflective of CareQuest Institute’s interest in promoting sustainability for its grantee partners. With the reduced request amount, the organization will be well positioned to support partners in the health field as well as community organizations newer to oral health.